"Aye girl. I expect all kinds of things to be assaulting the ship. Supposedly a group of harpies live in a storm around here, but they don't worry me. Damn Elemental Drakes worry me, as the goddamned things like when a good morsel wanders close to the storm, as it means they can pick it up, eat it safely around the storm, and keep having a good day." Raven Hayes continued to go about the deck, making sure that the weapons, and everything was being set to his satisfaction before moving forward. 

"Course, who knows what else lingers in the storm? Not like we have an experienced set of people who wander into storms and know whats going on. So, we'll need to be ready, cause I don't plan on going down without a damn fight." As the cannons were all pulled out and put in place, the ammo and weapons all ready, Raven turned back to the few mages who announced some intentions.

"That crossbow you have there looks like it could get the job done. I don't know what kind of mess we could get into, but I don't think the storm will show mercy." Walking by a crewmember, Raven grabbed a modified crossbow of his own and checked it, checking the autoloading crossbow before lowering it. 

"Keeping the outer shell intact? A fair idea, though I wonder how you will manage it. I do not think the storm will simply let us...keep all of our armor handy. The assistance will go well though, especially with an icy cover as well. Hopefully the mix of steel and ice would make an effective shield. If you think you can handle it? And how close to the edge will you need to be to enforce this...armor?"

The ship slowly was circling back so as to set up what almost seemed to be a running distance until it would charge into the storm. The crew were still finishing up getting read on the decks and below decks, strapping down anything that might be launched free, and closing up whatever doors that might swing open causing issues if they were hit by something. The [i]Dead Iron[/i] was armored up, and ready to charge and challenge the storm that sat in front of it. 

"You know, with how you mages are going about all this, I think we'll get along just fine as we go about our business." Raven commented as Alice, the crewmember from before, walked up to confirm that things on one of the lower decks were prepared. "Course, I imagine that's a bit premature as we haven't even wandered through the storm yet. If you got a bigger and faster idea for the storm, speak it soon or prepare to defend the ship!"